Ellen Walton
'Ellen Alice Walton '(born February 14, 1958) is an American politician, the current Mayor of Seattle, and the Progressive Party nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 Presidential Election. She is the first woman to win a state in a United States Presidential Election. The majority of Walton's life had been spent with the Green Party, one of the third parties in American politics, attempting to challenge the two-party system. She helped to found the party in 1984, and has been active in maintaining and furthering it from that point. Walton's own political career started with a successful campaign for Mayor of Portland, in which she served two terms, followed by being elected the Mayor of Seattle. In 2016, she announced her bid for President of the United States, and was the nominee of her party, which she transformed into the American Progressive Party. She oversaw the greatest popular vote total for a third party candidate in United States History, and the first time a third party has won a state since 1968. Early Life and Education Walton was born in Seattle, Washington on February 14, 1958, the daughter of billionaire Sam Walton. She was raised by her parents in Bentonville, Arkansas, spending her youth in the small city. As a teenager, Walton developed a minor delinquent record of various misdemeanor charges. She used drugs during that time in her life, undergoing multiple attempts at rehabilitation. Walton was eventually sent to Evergreen State College in Washington, where she pursued a major in Women's Studies. While there, Walton developed an interest in politics, and clamped down on her earlier misbehavior. Early Political Career After graduating, Walton successfully ran for a position on the Olympia City Council, and served there, but spent most of her time engaged in advocacy, and left the office when her term was completed. In 1984, Walton met with several other advocated to formally create the Green Party of the United States, a left-wing party dedicated to environmental protection, along with progressive social values, integrity in government, and social welfare economics. Walton spent the next two decades moving throughout the Northeast, creating a power base for the party, which was successful in electing several Greens to various positions, usually small ones. Her father's death in 1992 left her a significant amount of money in his inheritance, including investments, which she then used in both charitable efforts, and to strengthen the young party. Mayor of Portland In 2004, Walton stepped up from her largely organizational role to run for office personally, in the non-partisan elections for Mayor of Portland, and was elected successfully. During her time in office, she promoted several socially liberal reforms before their general acceptance, including promoting same-sex marriage, along with LGBT protections. She has a harsh critic of the Iraq War from its outset. She worked to help the problem of LGBT homelessness. The achievement and wage gaps between blacks and whites and men and women was another target. Anti-crime and gun control measures were put in place by Walton. By the end of her first term, Portland was given the ranking of "Safest city in America." She focused on targeting major crime rather than low-level drug crime. She was a popular Mayor in the liberal city, being re-elected by a larger margin in 2008, as worries about the economy begin to filter in. Portland's economy suffered greatly during the Great Recession, and Walton made attempts to renew it, with slow progress. By the end of her second term, Portland's unemployment was falling, as personal income, the housing market, and the general economy were all on the increase. At the conclusion of that second term, Walton left office despite many wanting her to stay for a successful third term. Mayor of Seattle Walton then returned to the state of her birth and education, Washington, and made a bid for Mayor of Seattle, again emerging victorious in the non-partisan elections. In her first term, Walton focused on expanding abortion coverage, securing LGBTQ protections, and making environmental-friendly reforms. During her tenure, she signed a bill to raise the minimum wage in the city to $15, and enjoyed excellent approval ratings. She managed to lower the poverty rate to the lowest in the nation during her time as Mayor in Seattle. She worked with Rep. Derek Mallens and they almost eradicated the homelessness epidemic. They made Seattle the fastest building city in America. Mayor Walton worked in Seattle during her campaign. She passed re-zoning reform to help the city's school system problems. She also made up for WAC cuts to Planned Parenthood and other centers. The wage gap was a major problem that she inherited in office. She began targeting violators and made slow progress on that issue. Seattle continued to be one of the fastest-growing cities in America. More building made that even stronger. 2016 Campaign Mayor Walton formally entered the 2016 Presidential campaign on March 23rd, hosting a rally in her city of Seattle, speaking against the state of the Democratic party, particularly then-leading candidate Gianna Carrollton, and Mayor Beaumont, and criticizing corruption, and her pride of the successes in Seattle in her opening speech. Walton spoke actively against the introduction, and then passage of the Diverting and Increasing Funding Toward Alternative Choices for Women's Health Bill, better known as the "Women's Alternative Choices bill" or WAC. She protested against its passage, and took action to fully fund Planned Parenthood centers within the city of Seattle. This was followed by a signature drive in opposition to the WAC, with the creation of a petition that would ultimately attain millions of signatures. During this period, Walton spoke at the American Unity event in Washington D.C, rejecting partisanship in politics, and encouraging the people to vote as they thought best. These events brought Walton to the public forefront, and soon snowballed into greater successes. Governor Hughes, the Democratic Governor of Michigan, broke with the party to endorse her, followed soon after by Governor Denver of Colorado, and Governor Murray of Indiana, formerly running in the Democratic primary. Walton began airing national advertisements, and televising her events nationally, dipping into her own funds, refusing special-interest or PAC donations. Walton fiercely criticized the events of the Democratic National Convention, ending in the nomination of Robert Danders via delegate choice, after a series of circumstances, which Walton called a "corrupt bargain", led to Senator Carrollton endorsing Danders at the last moment, despite being perceived as a lock for the nomination. She was then chosen as the Vice-Presidential nominee. Walton launched a series of advertisements criticizing both candidates, Governor Danders on his support of coal subsidies and laxity of gun control, and Carrollton for dishonesty. She further continued the criticism after Danders reneged on earlier core campaign promises, after falsely claiming they were not made, and a third time in criticizing his actions in publicly revealing a meeting between the major candidates and Taiwan. Walton, invited to the historic meeting, was the first third-party, and the first female, candidate elected to such a position. Early polls showed Walton in a tight third in the popular vote, behind Governor Danders, but leading him in the electoral vote, but a series of scandals and criticism against Governor Danders, combined with Walton events and the Republican National Convention led to a decisive swing in the polls. Going into the Green National Convention, Walton had opened up a nine-point lead over Danders, though still trailing well behind Republican nominee Calvin Reed. The Green National Convention began on August 2, in a unique town-hall style structure. As the convention began, the Democrats launched a series of attacks, Secretary of the Interior Schlang calling her a "plant" and a "joke" in an interview, and Rep. Hiroshi repeating the "plant." comment. Governor Danders claimed that he had successfully convinced Governor Hughes to return to the Democrats, but Hughes, introduced by Danders, re-iterated his support of Mayor Walton. In this time, Maine Senator John Kingston left the Democratic party, to join the Greens. Personal Life/Business Walton is unmarried, with no children. Walton is a member of the Walton family, with two brothers, a third dying in 2005. She has been noted to be on rough terms with several members of her family, due to her political activism and beliefs. She hold no business position in Wal-Mart, but does own a significant amount of shares. She has been known to put pressure on the company to implement several reforms, generally without effect, though her influence eventually led to Wal-Mart increasing the minimum wage for many of its employees. Walton has donated over $5 billion USD to charity groups, not including several billion to the Walton Family Foundation. She has pledged to donate the entirety of her inheritance by the time of her death. Category:Presidential Candidate